ATHENS — Fresh fears were brewing over Greece’s banking
system, where deposits have now fallen to $214 billion, down from $236
billion as recently as December. President Karolos Papoulias said yesterday that nearly $1
billion was withdrawn in recent days as uncertainty has grown
following the inclusive May 6 elections. Those divided results,
including new support for parties against the bailout deal, left
politicians unable to form a new government and raised doubts about the
will in Athens to stick to its agreement with the European Union and
International Monetary Fund.

However, two senior Greek banking officials, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, said recent
withdrawals have not yet reached the pace seen in February, just before
Greece staged an orderly debt default with private investors. There were
no obvious lines outside banks in Athens Wednesday, though funds are
also being shifted around online.

“This isn’t a panic, but we have to make sure it doesn’t turn into one,’’ said one of the banking officials....

Translation; there is a bank run across the continent and the banker's mouthpiece doesn't want you to know it.

ATHENS,
Greece - Prime Minister David Cameron of
Britain warned Thursday in a speech in Manchester, England: “The eurozone is at a
crossroads. It
either has to make up or it is looking at a potential breakup. Either
Europe has a committed, stable, successful eurozone with an effective
firewall, well-capitalized and -regulated banks, a system of fiscal
burden sharing and supportive monetary policy across the eurozone, or we
are in uncharted territory, which carries huge risks for everybody.’’

For
Europe’s thoroughly rattled financial markets, Greece is the ultimate
uncharted territory, and the appointment of a temporary government did
little to alter that. The two established parties in favor of the
bailout deal, New Democracy and the Socialists, have described Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras’s
stance as reckless and irresponsible and were exploring potential
alliances ahead of the elections.

That can only bolster Tsipras’s standing, and it hints at a backroom deal before the vote.

"In a recent election, neither of Greece’s two main parties, both of
which support the bailout deal, fared well. Instead, minor parties that
are threatening to renege on those commitments saw their popularity
surge. A new round of elections is set for June 17."

ATHENS - A left-wing party that opposes Greece’s
international bailout agreements has extended its lead ahead of next
month’s election, according to a new poll published Friday.

The poll gave the Syriza party 30 percent support,
widening its lead over the center-right New Democracy party from 2 to 4
percentage points from a poll on May 19.

And yet somehow they lost today.

The June 17 election was called when the country’s
political parties failed to reach a power-sharing deal after a May 6
vote that left no group with a parliamentary majority.

Greece’s
economy is being kept afloat on international loans, and the previous
governments imposed severe spending cuts and other austerity measures
that have infuriated the citizens. Syriza wants to scrap the loan
agreements, but that has raised fears that Greece will leave the
eurozone and destabilize world markets.

“We want all the peoples of Europe to hear us, and we
want their leaders to hear us when we say that no [country] chooses to
become servile, to lose their dignity or commit suicide. . . . We are
the political party that with the help of the people will fulfill our
campaign promises and cancel this bankrupt bailout deal.’’

Greek
stock markets rebounded strongly on Monday from a 22-year low on hopes a
pro-bailout party will win crucial national elections next month, which
would avoid a catastrophic rift with international creditors and keep
the struggling country within the euro currency union.

They are signaling you, Greek voters!

The main
stock index in Athens soared 6.5 percent in mid-afternoon trading, with
the battered bank sector chalking up solid gains.

Four polls
published Sunday reversed previous trends to indicate that conservative
New Democracy could come first in the June 17 vote, slightly ahead of
the anti-austerity radical left Syriza party.

The FIX IS IN, folks!!!

Although the conservatives
would still fall short of a governing majority, the surveys suggested
they could form a coalition government with socialist PASOK, which have
also pledged to stick to Greece’s austerity commitments....

What good are socialists if they are only socialist for banks?

And I am finding it MORE THAN A LITTLE ANGERING that the NEXT SENTENCE and following paragraph was REMOVED from the web version:

The austerity, however, also caused huge popular
resentment toward New Democracy and PASOK, the two parties that accepted
the terms.

But now they are ahead again, sigh.

Voters expressed that anger clearly in May 6 elections,
giving a boost to anti-bailout parties. But the election proved
inconclusive, with none of the parties able to form a coalition
government, leaving Greece to hold another ballot next month.

But it all turned around, sigh.

Greece’s
bailout creditors — the other countries in the 17-nation eurozone and
the International Monetary Fund — insist that if the country reneges on
its austerity commitments, the rescue loans will stop.

That would
unleash chaos. The government would be unable to pay hospital workers,
police and teachers, pensions would dry up and a potential panic run on
bank deposits would destroy the tottering financial system.

Since when have the money junkies cared about civil servants and their pensions?

Eventually,
the country could be forced to abandon the 17-member eurozone, reverting
to a vastly devalued form of its old drachma currency.

That is the ANSWER, readers, because the return to the drachma would allow the Greek economy to soar.

Fears of
such an outcome have battered Greek financial markets for weeks....

That's how money and markets control politics and elections.

Sergios Melahrinos, analyst at Solidus Securities, noted that if the two pro-bailout parties manage to win the election
and have Greece honor its austerity commitments, banks would gain access
to rescue money needed to avoid collapse. Under the country’s latest
international bailout, domestic banks that took huge losses from a bond
swap that more than halved Greece’s privately-held debt will receive
billions of euros to boost their capitalization. If a new government in
Athens unilaterally tears up the bailout deal — as Syriza has threatened
to do — the recapitalization would fall through.

Another chop:

“A potential win by the parties that back their recapitalization would be extremely good for lenders.’’

You know what they say: once is a mistake, twice is a pattern.

But
Melahrinos warned that the market would remain vulnerable to the ups
and downs in the polls in the leadup to the elections. “New polls that
show a reversal would obviously change the market picture.’’

*******************************

One
survey in To Vima newspaper found that 65 percent want Greece to remain
in the eurozone even if it has to implement the bailout agreement as it
stands, while 24 percent said they would prefer to exit the euro rather
than implement austerity policies.

Since the beginning of 2010,
Greeks have suffered repeated income cuts and tax hikes, while
unemployment has hit record levels with more than one in five workers
jobless after tens of thousands of businesses closed. The country is in a
fifth year of deep recession, and continues to import about twice as
much as it exports.

And the Greeks just voted for more of it.

And what the web added:

On Monday, Greek journalists held a 24-hour
strike to protest pay cuts and rising unemployment, and to press for the
signing of new collective wage contracts.

"Wary Greeks head back to polls; Eurozone future could be at stake" by Elena Becatoros | Associated Press, June 16, 2012

ATHENS - At the dinner table, in the coffee shop, on the
street corner, the one constant as Greeks prepare to vote once again is
concern. Depending on the outcome of Sunday’s election, Greece could be
forced out of the European joint currency, with potentially catastrophic
consequences for the global economy....

The
debt-ridden country’s two-year financial crisis has left much of the
nation in tatters, tearing at its social fabric. Hospitals have run out
of supplies, suicides have been on the increase, and unemployment has
skyrocketed above 22 percent as tens of thousands of businesses shut
down.

And the Greeks voted for more of that.

The protracted crisis has also overturned Greece’s political scene,
hammering the two parties that have dominated for decades and that
Greeks blame for sending their country from boom to bust in just a few
years....

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras’ pledges, which include canceling planned privatizations,
nationalizing banks, and rolling back cuts to minimum wages and
pensions, have horrified European leaders as well as many Greeks.
Although he insists he can persuade other European nations that it is in
their interests to keep Greece within the euro, his political opponents
have accused him of being out of touch with reality, saying his
policies will force Greece out of the euro and lead to mass poverty for
years to come.

"Greece’s election could shake up bailout, economy" by Rachel Donadio and Steven Erlanger |
New York Times, June 17, 2012

ATHENS - Greeks head to the polls Sunday for the second
time in two months with a pervasive sense of dread that any government
that comes to power will fail to resolve the political and economic
turmoil that threatens the country’s future - and the financial
stability of Europe itself.

Even if the establishment center-right party New Democracy ekes out a
victory in a race that polls show as tight, Greece faces weeks or
months of negotiations with European lenders over the terms of its
austerity program, which all parties agree are too onerous to enforce on
its rapidly shrinking economy.

And that is just what happened.

A victory by the leftist party Syriza promises a more serious
confrontation, especially with Germany, over how - and perhaps whether -
to keep Greece in the eurozone.

The
winner will also face an uphill battle to inject confidence into a
paralyzed economy that depends heavily on the continued infusion of
money by the European Central Bank. The bank, based in Frankfurt, has
become the last lifeline for a financial system that has all but seized
up and a deficit-ridden government that has little ability to raise new
revenues or borrow money to continue its operations.

On Monday, as Greece tries to determine whether it has a viable new
government, leaders of the G-20 group of developed and emerging
economies will gather in Mexico, where they are expected to debate ways
to keep the Greek crisis and the weakness of the bigger economies of
Spain and Italy from undermining the euro and dragging the global
economy into a new recession.

Yes, dear readers, but FIVE YEARS after WE'RE SORRY, WE WON'T DO IT AGAIN, WE HAVE RULES, we are RIGHT BACK WHERE WE WERE FIVE YEARS AGO despite the "recovery."

Central bankers from Tokyo to Washington have pledged to intervene in
financial markets if necessary to shore up those economies, but the
Greek drama threatens to keep investors on edge for weeks to come....

There is no mechanism to kick Greece out of the euro, and the two
leading candidates say they have no intention of taking Greece out
voluntarily. Greece could be forced to fend for itself if the European
Central Bank decides that it is a fool’s errand to keep replenishing
Greek banks that have no collateral or credibility. But the bank’s job
is to protect the euro, and it has repeatedly argued that contagion from
an exit by Greece could outweigh the costs of keeping it afloat....

Others increasingly warn of the risk of an “accident’’ - a bank run
somewhere in the eurozone that spirals out of control, or the Greek
government running out of money to pay salaries and pensions after
paying back creditors - which could precipitate into market panic and
social unrest.

Already happening.

Around 80 percent of Greeks want to remain in the European Union and
within the eurozone, but they also want a radical renegotiation of the
bailout terms. European leaders see this as a contradiction, but Greek
leaders see it as necessary to fight a deepening recession....

A new round of negotiations also became inevitable after Spain got a
$125 billion bailout for its banks on terms that are much less
restrictive than the austerity package demanded of Greece, which unlike
Spain had run up a huge fiscal deficit in better times.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The pro-bailout New Democracy party
came in first Sunday in Greece’s national election and could gather
enough support to form a pro-bailout coalition to keep the country in
the eurozone.

As central banks stood ready to intervene in case of financial
turmoil, Greece held its second national election in just six weeks to
try to select a new government after an inconclusive ballot on May 6.

Sunday’s vote was seen as crucial for Europe and the world, since it
could determine whether Greece is forced to leave the joint euro
currency, a move that could have potentially catastrophic consequences
for other ailing European nations and the global economy.

Although
official projections late Sunday showed that no party will win enough
seats in the 300-member parliament to form a government on its own,
Greece’s two traditional parties — the conservative New Democracy and
the socialist PASOK — would have enough seats to form a coalition
together....

Oooh, STINK!!!!

The projections showed New Democracy winning 29.5 percent and 128
seats. The radical left Syriza party, which has vowed to repeal Greece’s
international bailout deal, was expected to come in second with 27.1
percent and 72 seats. PASOK trails with 12.3 percent and 33 seats.

To form a majority government, a coalition would need at least 151 seats. The party that comes first in Sunday’s vote gets a bonus of 50 seats
in the 300-member Parliament and gets the first try at forming a new
government with a majority in Parliament. If they fail, the next highest
party gets to try.

Earlier, the exit polls projected seven parties in all beating the 3
percent threshold for seats in Parliament, including the extremist
right-wing Golden Dawn party, which vehemently rejects the neo-Nazi
label but has been blamed for numerous violent attacks against
immigrants.

Golden Dawn was projected at winning between 6 and 7.5 percent,
roughly maintaining the level of the nearly 7 percent it won in May — a
meteoric rise for a fringe party that had polled at just 0.3 percent.

The small Democratic Left party was projected at winning between 5.5
and 6.5 percent, with the right-wing Independent Greeks tied with Golden
Dawn at 6-7.5 percent.

There are no rules governing a country’s exit from the eurozone. A
Greek exit could cause economic chaos in Europe, prompt investors to
flee stocks in the U.S. , and spark a panic that other debt-strapped
European nations — Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy — might also have
to leave the eurozone.

That domino scenario — known in economic terms as contagion — could
engulf the euro, causing a global financial panic not unlike the one
that gripped the world in 2008 after the investment firm Lehman Brothers
failed in the U.S.

Yeah, you read that right. After TRILLIONS upon TRILLION in BAILOUT LOOT the world economy is RIGHT BACK WHERE IT WAS BEFORE even a DOLLAR was spent!

Virtually unknown outside of Greece four months ago, Tsipras and his
party shot to prominence in the May 6 vote, where he came a surprise
second and quadrupled his support since the 2009 election....

Earlier Sunday, about 10 men armed with sledgehammers and wooden bats
attacked a polling station in central Athens, wounding two policemen
guarding it and setting fire to the ballot box shortly before polls
closed. The attack — the only one reported so far — took place in the
Athens neighborhood of Exarhia, a traditional haven for leftists and
anarchists.

Greek agent provocateurs.

Greek police were also investigating the discovery Sunday of two
unexploded hand grenades outside private Skai television station on the
outskirts of Athens. Greek government spokesman Demetris Tsiodras
denounced the devices as an attempt to spoil the smooth running of the
election.

This claim that an "unofficial" poll shows the
pro-debt-slavery party is ahead is to explain away the theft of Sunday's
elections, because a moment's thought reveals the utter absurdity of
this BBC claim that the Greek people agree to vote themselves into
perpetual poverty to pay off debts crated without their permission
through fraud and criminal action.

And let us not forget that much of Europe's debt crisis is the
direct result of the crash of Wall Street's mortgage-backed security
fraud; the biggest financial crime in history and one for which none of
the perpetrators have yet to be arrested.

Even after the collapse of the mortgage-backed securities fraud,
Wall Street recklessly sold more than $90 trillion in credit default
swaps against Europe's debt, but lacks the cash to make good on the
swaps when they come due. In other words, a victory for the
anti-Austerity party Sunday means Wall Street gets a bill it cannot pay
and that is an issue which in the eyes of the US Government is
'much too important for the Greek voters to be left to decide for
themselves!' Past history assures us every vote rigging trick known is
already in play in Athens.

The Greek people are looking at how Iceland handled the crisis.
Iceland jailed their crooked bankers and fired their government. Their
new government has written off all debts created through fraud and
Iceland's economy is improving. Why would th Greek people NOT vote to
follow the established pattern of success? Why would the people of
Greece vote to continue the same policies which have wrecked their
lives? The answer is that they would not. The answer is that we live in
an age of rampant election fraud all across the western world, and
governments willing to steal elections to guarantee continued looting of
the world's people....

The money-junkies are going to steal Greece, and tell you the Greek people wanted it that way!

UPDATE: The polls have closed in Greece and even
though the exit polls have the New Democratic Party (the money-junkie
party) and the SYRIZA party (the anti-austerity party) as within a half
point of each other, the western media are in many cases already
proclaiming a victory for the money-junkies, that New Democrats will
have 160 seats in the Parliament, etc. It is obvious there has been
massive vote fraud in Greece, being sold to you with the ludicrous
suggestion that the Greek people, driven into abject poverty by corrupt
government policies, voted to keep those exact same policies in place.
Such a suggestion is patently absurd on the face of it, and given that
the United States has a long history of hijacking the democratic process
to serve US interests, there is no reason to assume they have not done
so here....

So, what now?

Despite the media frenzy to proclaim the party of the
money-junkie triumphant, a gap of just a half point will mean a call for
a recount if not a revote. Even if the money-junkies tampered with the
election enough to put the New Democratic Party ahead, they failed to
get an overwhelming majority, which means Greece is back where they were
last May with two opposing parties trying to form a coalition
government and the money-junkies refusing to join a coalition unless it
is willing to plunge the Greek people back into slavery to the central
bankers, and remember, much of the debt they are talking about was not
created by the Greek people but resulted from a crooked deal between
Goldman Sachs and Papandreous. So this will be a replay of last May, a
coalition government blocked by the money-junkies again." -- Wake the Flock Up

Next Day Update:

"Probailout party wins in Greece; Worries may ease on wider economy" by Rachel Donadio |
New York Times, June 18, 2012

ATHENS - Late Sunday, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the leftist Syriza Party,
conceded the election, according to the Associated Press, and
congratulated the conservative leader of New Democracy, Antonis Samaras....

With 82 percent of the vote counted, official results gave New
Democracy 30 percent of the vote and 130 seats. The antibailout Syriza
Party was in second place with 26.6 percent and 71 seats. PASOK trailed
with 12.5 percent and 33 seats. The nationalist Golden Dawn Party and
the Democratic left trailed with less than 7 percent each....

Syriza had billed itself as a kind of “Greek Spring,’’
capturing the momentum of those hungry for change at almost any cost
from a political system widely seen as corrupt and ineffective. It also
had support from voters who feel betrayed by the Socialists, whose PASOK
Party was in power in 2010 when Greece signed the first of its two loan
deals with foreign creditors.

Oh, they are Socialists, they are just Socialists for banks.

And yup, somehow Syriza did worse in this round of elections, yup.

For its part, New Democracy has been tapping into a different kind of
fear - of the unknown, of illegal immigration, of an exit from the
eurozone hastened by a Syriza victory....

Germany’s finance minister welcomed the New Democracy victory as a
mandate to move ahead with far-reaching reforms. Germany’s foreign
minister said it was important for Greece to stick to its agreements
with creditors, but held out the prospect that Athens might be given
more time to comply with them.

Germany, which is Europe’s biggest economy, has been a major
contributor to Greece’s two multibillion-euro rescue packages and has
been the main advocate of tough austerity and reform measures in
exchange.

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